Places and forms of power: how people exercise their power ? What tools can they use ?

I’m going to talk about the notion « places and forms of power ». First I would like to give a definition of this concept : power is the ability to influence people’s behaviour. In order to live together members of a community accept rules, regulation and laws. This helps to create social cohesion but can also lead to conflicts and tensions. But the question is : how people exercise their power ? What tools can they use ? This concept can be approached from different aspect. Such as the economic power with global companies and even by the happened of « new power ».

We can make an obvious link between global companies and economic power as they incite customers buy their products. In fact, their primary aim is to make profits. They can incite customers through massive advertising campaigns such as TV commercials which are broadcasted all around the world. But, besides advertising, they can use another marketing weapon such as the logo which represent and symbolize the brand. And this is called a « consumers society ».

The economic power can also be represented, at the scale of the city and country, by the towers and skycreapers as they reflect the wealth and the sucess of the place. They are sometimes located in the CBD which is the central area of the city where financial activities and corporate headquarters are concentrated. And they dominate their suroundings and so they are seen from a distance.

Now I will speak about political power and a « new power ». In a democracy, three power are usually listed : the executive power, held by the government, the legislative power, held by the parliament and the judicial power, held by the courts and tribunals. A fourth power can be represented by the media such as the press, the radio or TV channels. But today with the emergence of internet, a fifth power can be embodied by social networks. As everybody can posed message, they can influence, support or even overthrow governments. So it’s obvious that social networks represent a real new power in the service of all the community.

To conclude I will say that the notion of power is a complicated concept that people, companies and many others use totally different way thanks to the equally diverse tools.

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